Sunday, June 2, 2013

Statins Provide No Benefit: Study of 4 Million People

Aside from demonstrating that statins provide no benefit to most people, this study also demonstrates that the so-called gold standard, randomized double blinded placebo controlled, study is a farce. Add to that, though, the fact that statins have severe and deadly adverse effects, it’s apparent that these drugs are doing great harm while providing no benefit.by Heidi Stevenson
A population-based study in Sweden shows that the massive deployment of statins has provided no benefit. Three times as many statins were being taken by Swedish people in the year 2000 than in 1998. Yet, the numbers of people suffering or dying from heart attacks were unchanged by the increase!
Not only does this demonstrate that the massive push to press people into taking statins has been based on flawed science, it also turns the claim that randomized double blinded placebo controlled (RDBPC) drug trials are the gold standard upside down.
The study with the unwieldy name, “No connection between the level of exposition to statins in the population and the incidence/mortality of acute myocardial infarction: An ecological study based on Sweden’s municipalities”, was published today in Biomed Central’s Journal of Negative Results in Medicine.[1] We can count our blessings for this journal that produces reports of studies that did not get the expected results. The shame is that such results are not generally valued as highly as those that were expected. They are, after all, every bit as significant and important. The only usual problem with them is that they don’t support the results that Big Pharma wants to promulgate.
The authors’ conclusion is quite clear. They do not hem and haw about it:

Despite a widespread and increasing utilisation of statins, no correlation to the incidence or mortality of AMI [acute myocardial infarction] could be detected. Other factors than increased statin treatment should be analysed especially when discussing the allocation of public resources.

There is no truth behind the claims of benefit from statins.
Even though three times as many Swedish people between ages 40 and 79 were taking statins, there was no reduction in heart attacks. It’s unfortunate that the study didn’t also investigate the adverse effects caused by them. Then we would know how many people were harmed by these drugs that are known to cause muscle pain and destruction.
The study covered nearly the entire Swedish population aged 40-79 for the years 1998-2000. They included the data from 289 municipalities, which included all areas of the country, urban, suburban, country, industrial, and everything inbetween. The only one left out could not be included because of missing data. The total numbers were 1,926,113 men and 1,995,981 women—for a total of 3,922,094 people.
Here’s the study’s graph of results:

Incidence and mortality of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and statin utilisation in the Swedish population, 40-79 yearsold, 1998-2002DDD: Defined daily doses per 1,000 inhabitants and day

Results from virtually the entire Swedish population demonstrated that the threefold increase in statins use provided no benefit.

Randomized Double Blinded Placebo Controlled Trials (RDBPC Trials)

So, what does that mean for all those pseudo-scientific RDBPC trials touted as being the gold standard in testing drugs? Obviously, it means that they’re worthless—at least in the way that they’re currently applied in pharmaceutical drug trials. Clearly, they are easily and routinely subverted.
The effects of a drug when the entire populace is examined are obviously more important than carefully designed trials, especially when they’re done by or for the people who stand to profit from them.

Adverse Effects

But the story is even worse than this study demonstrates, because it doesn’t address the adverse effects of statins, which can be quite severe. They include pancreatitis, rhabdomyolysis (muscle pain and wasting), hepatitis, angioedema, urticaria, shortness of breath, edema, pruritis, and blood in the urine. All of these can be life threatening or indicative of the onset of life-threatening conditions. It is, therefore, safe to assume that statins are among those drugs that do far more harm than good.
Gaia Health has been telling you the truth about statins, digging through the trials to point out the flaws and telling you about their risks. Based on these deeply-flawed studies, so-called experts have been pressing more and more people to take these devastatingly dangerous drugs. There’s even a push to put everyone over a certain age on them, and suggestions by doctors that they should be handed out like condiments at fast food restaurants.
The inherent flaws and corruption at the heart of modern medicine are demonstrated by this single incontrovertible study. They are exemplified by simply noting that: